


I Don't Know Why

by Gigi2



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Steve Rogers, Adorable Tony Stark, Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Children, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Gen, M/M, Minor Violence, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Beta Read, Panic Attacks, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Reading, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 10:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14669466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gigi2/pseuds/Gigi2
Summary: The gas was tasteless and odourless, as well as colourless. It's end result was simple, six of the nine avengers in the tower turned into five-year-olds. Luckily, Wanda, Clint and Bucky can look after them. It can't be that bad.





	I Don't Know Why

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again, I hope you enjoy this work. I have been debating on it for a while, let me know what you think below.

They were all lying around the top floor of the tower when they heard the ruckus coming from the roof, immediately they were all on edge, them being Steve, Bucky, Thor, Loki, Natasha, Wanda, Clint, Tony and Bruce. Friday’s voice came through the speakers that were built into the walls.

“Sir, it appears there is some sort of agent moving through the vents. I have run a diagnostic on it, but I haven’t come up with anything”.

In the blink of an eye, six of the nine inhabitants of the tower were lying on the floor, the clothes they were wearing had shrunk along with them. Only Bucky, Clint and Wanda stood there, shocked expressions locked into their faces as they studied the other members of their team. All of them were tiny, some of them younger than others. Bucky did the only thing he knew how to do at this point, he laughed, and laughed and laughed until his sides hurt. Wanda looked horrified, Clint just shook his head.

“Friday, can you tell me what happened?”, Wanda asked as she knelt down beside the group of still dazed children.

“It appears Mr. Stark, Mr. Rogers, Dr. Banner, Ms. Romanov, Loki and Thor have turned into small children. At this time, I do not know if the effects are permanent or not”, Friday answered.

Beside her, Steve was pulling at Bucky’s fingers. Bucky shook his head before he knelt down beside Steve, a blinding smile on his face.

“You look like my friend”, Steve said in a thick Brooklyn drawl.

“What friend would that be?”, Bucky wondered.

“Bucky”.

Bucky shook his head; thick stands of brown hair fell across his face. Steve reached out with tiny hands and wrapped a strand of hair around his finger. Across the room, Natasha was babbling in Russian as she pushed Tony and Loki into the corner. Thor and Bruce stood by and watched, pointing and grinning. Wanda moved to them and split them into three groups.

“Barnes, can you take Natasha and Steve, Clint, you can have the two scientists and I’ll take the two gods. Take a section of the room and keep the children in that corner. God, I wish Vis was here”, Wanda muttered.

Bucky and Clint nodded before they each took their children. Bucky set Steve and Natasha up by the window, two books and a few pages of cream card and pens. Clint didn’t know what to do with Tony and Bruce, so he left the two of them alone before he ran down to the lab, picking up the weirdest looking thing from the lab and a book, he hoped that they understood what was happening in the book, because Clint sure as hell didn’t. Up in the top floor, Loki and Thor were sitting quietly with Wanda, who was fluttering red wisp to keep them entertained.

“How are you all holding up?”, Clint asked after a while of silence.

“Oh, this is great. My fiancé of over seventy years is a child, two of the most powerful things in the universe are laughing happily, and those two are reading something that even I don’t understand. So yeah, everything is good”, Bucky called as he showed Steve the picture, Natasha stood back for a few seconds before she joined them.

“Steve wasn’t lying when he said you were dramatic”, Wanda giggled before she formed a wolf head with the wisps.

“That reminds me of the pictures of Hati. I hated that beast”, Thor muttered.

Loki pouted before he punched Thor in the shoulder. The God of Thunder whined before he tackled Loki off of the sofa and sent the crystal vase flying off of the coffee table. Wanda shouted at them in angry Sokovian, Clint looked up from where Tony and Bruce were looking at the advanced quantum theory book, he raised his eyebrow in a question of do you need help.

“Hey”, Wanda shouted before she pulled at Loki’s leg.

“Let go of me”, Loki snapped as a horned helmet formed on his head.

“Brother do not hurt the pretty lady. Mother would be upset with you if you did”, Thor called as Loki pouted once again.

“Is that all he does?”, Clint asked.

“Eh, I don’t think you can complain”, Bucky admitted.

“At least my hundred-year old boyfriend isn’t a child”. Clint stuck his tongue out at Bucky.

“That’s rude, Barton”, Bucky called before he flipped the archer off.

“Can we not make rude gestures in front of the children?”, Wanda asked.

Both Bucky and Clint dropped their heads. Later on, beside Clint, Tony and Bruce were yawning as they babbled together, something about dinosaurs and aliens. Thor and Loki were snoozing on the sofa, their bodies heaving together, Loki’s head was rested casually on Thor’s stomach. Natasha had dragged a cushion off of the sofa and was curled around it as she slept. Bucky had a snoring Steve on his lap, his metal fingers carding through Steve’s golden blonde hair. Bucky found his own lids grow heavy, Wanda had already fallen victim to the silence, and the exhaustion that chasing after two gods caused.

“You still alive, Barton?”, Bucky wondered.

“Barely, my sister’s kids were worse than these. I’m just worried, y’know?”.

“Yeah. My mind is working overtime at the minute, too fast to process to be honest, I just keep thinking what if they come back to try anything with us, can the three of us starve them off? What if they don’t turn back?”. Bucky sighed.

“First of all, we can’t think like that. The kids will be fine, even Steve. You got him through it once, you’ll get him through it again”. Clint had a smile on his face as he spoke.

“It’s just been a long time since he was this vulnerable. Since I’ve come back, he’s been taking care of me, I feel like this is my chance to get back at him for it”.

“Well, my kids are asleep, tucked beside each other, how’re yours?”.

“He’s finally asleep, I can feel his chest rattling though. I can’t remember the last time I was this worried”, Bucky admitted quietly.

“He’ll be fine. I’m thinking about waking Wanda up, maybe we could go down to the store, to pick up some food and clothes. What do you think?”, Clint asked.

“Sure. Let me just move him and we can go”, Bucky agreed.

Bucky pulled on his jacket once he moved Steve closer to Natasha and he pressed a kiss to the top of his head before he pulled the throw over the pair of them. Clint went up and shook Wanda awake, her hazel eyes squinted at Clint before she shot up, knocking their heads together.

“We’re just going to the store to get some things, do you need anything?”, Clint asked.

“Cranberry juice, and lots of it”, Wanda requested.

The two men nodded before they walked to the elevator. The store down the street had everything they needed, at astronomical prices. Clint took one metal trolley and Bucky took a smaller, red one, just in case they went over.

“What do babies eat?”, Bucky wondered.

“Chocolate, crackers, bananas. We’re lucky enough that they’re not actual babies “, Clint pointed out.

“I hate the twenty-first century”, Bucky grumbled as he pushed a few packets of various flavoured rice cakes into the trolley.

They continued to move though the shop, throwing everything from clothes to colouring books and pencils into the trollies. Soon enough, they were standing at the register with two overflowing trollies. Bucky nearly choked when he was the total.

“Tony doesn’t need to know”. Clint smirked as he swiped Tony’s card through the machine.

They bagged up their goods, each of them took four huge bags and they waddled back to the tower. They sighed happily once they were back in the main room of the top floor. Standing in the middle of the room, Wanda was pulling at her hair as Thor and Loki screamed at each other, fighting with tiny miniscule weapons, to the left, Tony and Bruce were arguing about something Bucky didn’t understand. Natasha was in the corner, eyeing everything cautiously, Steve was sitting with his back flush against the window, his head between his head.

“Fuck”, Bucky cursed as he rummaged through the paper bags, looking for the Vicks Vaporub.

Clint mirrored his actions before he threw it to the other enhanced solider, who caught it without a second look. Clint began to help Wanda reign in the other kids while Bucky moved closer to Steve.

“Stevie? How’re you feelin’ bud?”, Bucky asked quietly as he knelt down beside the trembling boy.

“Can’t breathe”. Steve gasped

“Look at me darlin’, in and out, remember what your ma used to say?”, Bucky wondered as he sat beside Steve.

“One, two, three and repeat”, Steve croaked.

“That’s it”, Bucky praised.

After a few minutes, the screaming turned into hushed whispers and Bucky gathered Steve into his arms and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

“Are you Buck?”, Steve asked.

“Yeah darlin’. I promise I’ll find a way to help you, okay. Just take it easy. I got you some stuff, do you want a drink?”, Bucky questioned.

“Can I have a drink?”, Natasha asked in Russian.

“Da”. Bucky smiled before he got to his feet” Water or milk?”.

“Moloko”. Tasha smiled.

Bucky headed over to the counter where all of the food had been left out. He half filled two smaller glasses of milk before he went back to Steve and Natasha, both of whom took the glasses. For the next few hours, everything was fine, Bucky read to Steve and then translated the story into Russian for Natasha, Clint coloured with Bruce and Tony, and Wanda conjured various shapes and animals in her red wisps. Loki and Thor were clapping along happily as they sucked on their juice boxes, Wanda was treating the cranberry juice like vodka. If only Vision was here, Wanda would love that. Instead, him, Sam and Rhodey were in Wakanda enjoying the sun.

“Go easy on the juice, Wands”. Clint smiled

“Sometimes I think it’s the only thing keeping me sane”, Wanda said darkly, then she cracked up.

“It’s getting late, do you think we should feed them?”, Clint wondered.

“Yeah, I’ll fix it up, Wanda, can you like find something to make beds out of?”, Bucky asked.

“Pillow forts?”. Wanda raised her eyebrows.

“Perfect”.

“Are you still paranoid somebody is coming to attack them?”, Clint wondered.

“Yup”.

Bucky sighed before he went over to the kitchen on the other side of the tower. He prepared six plates, two sandwiches on each, a few scoops of curried rice and a small bowel of tomato soup on the side. Bucky called the six miniature avengers over to the sofa, he set each of them down with a plate and a fork, and he left the soup on the table to cool. Clint stood back and watched as Bucky got them all fed and watered before he dumped the dishes in the dishwasher.

“You’re good with kids”, Clint said.

“I had a little sister, and I spent most of my life looking after Steve”. Bucky shrugged.

“Need help changing their clothes?”, Clint wondered.

Bucky nodded before they quickly changed their clothes and placed the paint stained, water drenched clothes into a wooden hamper. Now, the baby avengers were lying on the sofa in fresh, clean clothes, and they were all yawning together. Wanda soon came back up to the top floor, with pillows and duvets were floating behind her in a deep red mist. She began to set them up with Clint’s help. Carefully, Bucky ferried the nearly asleep children over to the cloud like beds that had been made on the floor. Once the children were asleep, Wanda, Clint and Bucky shared a glass of cranberry juice in satisfaction as six tiny bodies were wracked with snores.

“I still have a bad feeling about this”, Bucky said.

“Such as?”, Wanda wondered.

“Nearly all of the members of the avengers are turned into children, you don’t think that’s weird?”.

“He has a point”, Clint pointed out.

Bucky sighed. The night went on and Bucky always boarded on that area between sleep and wakefulness. He was just about to fall asleep when Friday woke him.

“Mr. Barnes, there’s a group of intruders on the roof, they are armed”, Friday announced.

Bucky sprung to action and he shook Clint and Wanda awake. Clint went to get his bow and quiver that were hidden in the corner of the room, and well Bucky, he stole Steve’s shield. Both of them ordered Wanda to stay with the kids, just in case.

“I told you this would happen”, Bucky muttered as they walked up the stairs after they ordered Friday to cut the power.

“Yeah, well”, Clint sighed.

There was seven armed men in the stairway, Bucky beat one of them to a pulp with Steve’s shield, while Clint took our two of them with arrows. The bullets ricocheted off of the shield before Bucky threw it like a frisbee and knocked another of them out cold. Between them, the seven assailants lay in the stairwell, Bucky grunted as he checked his flesh shoulder.

“You got shot?”, Clint exclaimed.

“It’s a flesh wound. Let’s just get back down to the kids”. 

They raced back down to where the others were all still lying there, Wanda was looking over them, her eyes tinged red as she whipped around. The two former assassins dropped their weapons. They settled back down, but it wasn’t long before Tony and Natasha woke up. Natasha waddled along in her all black ensemble and went to the bathroom.

“I need some milk”.

Clint sighed before he stood up and half filled a long glass with ice-cold milk before he went back to hand it to Tony, who drained in in seconds.

“I see Tony still kept all of his traits from childhood”, Bucky said.

“When you were gone, he woke up and chased Bruce around with a screwdriver”, Wanda admitted.

“That’s great, Wanda, really great. At least Loki hasn’t stabbed Thor yet”. Bucky shrugged as his eyes fell to Steve.

“He’ll be fine. You were right, maybe it was just meant to last for a while, so they could kill us all?”, Wanda wondered.

Bucky shrugged, and Clint nodded. It made sense, but why didn’t they turn into children too? It was one of those questions that they would never have the answer to. Bucky settled down beside Steve, his back poker straight against the window pane. The rest of the night passed without incident, apart from each of the children waking up and going to the bathroom. It was a little after nine when all of the kids woke up enough to be fed, so Clint and Wanda poured the cereal into the blue bowls and handed it to them. Once they were finished, they went off to do their own thing, Bruce and Tony were painting on the plain card, Steve and Natasha were playing a rolling game with a tennis ball with Thor and Loki. Wanda sighed as she looked at them all, a small smile graced her lips.

“You okay?”, Clint asked.

“Yeah, I just hope they don’t spend too much longer as children. Maybe we should call Vis home to see if he can help?”. Wanda shook her head.

“Look at you, Vis this, Vis that. You’re in love”. Clint smirked.

Wanda shrugged as a slight blush tainted her cheeks. The time up until twelve passed without much incident, minus the fact that Loki had started strangling Thor, then Natasha jumped in, followed by them all getting involved. It was rough. They managed to pull them away, for a bunch of five-year-old, they were strong, and feisty. Suddenly, there were groans of pain and then in the blink of an eye, the children were turned back into fully grown adults, although they were still in their new clothes. Tony and Bruce were standing with bewildered looks on their faces, Natasha was shrugging her shoulders, Thor and Loki looked ready to stab each other, and they had been doing so well. Steve was pinching his nose bridge as Bucky wrapped an arm around him.

“You scared me for a little while last night Stevie”, Bucky admitted.

“You should be used to it by now. So, what happened? You got shot”, Steve wondered.

“I’m fine darlin’”. Bucky smiled before he kissed Steve softly.

“Weird mist, six kids, typical Tuesday”. Clint shrugged.

“Fair enough, we don’t get paid enough for this job”, Bruce muttered.

“Do we even get paid?”, Wanda asked.

They all shrugged. It was done, later they all curled around the sofa, except Clint because he just third wheeled Natasha and Wanda’s hug. The three of them shared a look, thankful that they had survived this.

“You strangled me”, Loki complained.

“You threatened to stab me”, Thor grumbled.

“You two were the most… difficult to handle. Tony and Bruce just coloured and argued about dinosaurs, Natasha and Steve coloured”, Wanda admitted.

“I do not colour, Wanda”. Natasha narrowed her eyes dangerously.

“You all coloured. It was so cute, I have pictures”. Bucky smirked.

“I hate you”.

Bucky shrugged before he settled down beside Steve and rested a head on his shoulder, he was essential mirroring everybody’s movements, even Clint who was casually resting his head on Natasha’s shoulder. Wanda just prayed that this never happened again, she knew the next time they wouldn’t be the nice, caring children they had been this time. The next time, they would be evil little devils that destroyed everything that they touched. Tony and Bruce continued their argument over dinosaurs.


End file.
